You know, that’s not the first time I’ve heard of Kirby salepeople getting pissy when you get to the “no means no” part of their visit.
In what universe is this a wise sales tactic? Cause I know that as soon as a salesperson starts getting pissy with me it immediately makes me want to buy something from them:rolleyes:.
Is it some sort of last resort desperation nothing-to-lose move?
I remember getting a desperate call from a friend of mine. Evidently, she had made the mistake of letting a Kirby vacuum salesman in to her house and the only way she could get them to leave was to give them the names of 2 of her friends that might need a vacuum cleaner.
“Mel,” she explained. “I gave them your number because your dad was a door-to-door salesman and you know how to get them out of your house!”
Unfortunately, the guy never called. I was all set to sell them my Ronco oven roaster, ginzu knives, and a lovely set of encyclopedias. . . .
Threatening to set them on fire would probably work.
Same old modus operandi!
An Electrolux salesman came by with his spiel. I suggested we compare his new machine with my old worn out model. He hooked his up and is sucked up 4 balls.
Next we hooked up the old one and it outdid his with sucking up 5 balls!
End of story, no sale today! Didn’t reveal that I had rebuilt mine with a new turbine.
Rob Cockerham has been on the case for a while now…
I wonder what kind of response they’d give you if you told them you never owned a vacuum and never plan to own one since you hate vacuuming and always have someone come in and do it for you.
“But if I buy this vacuum from you that means I’ll have to vacuum. I told you I don’t do vacuuming. I always have someone come in to do it.”
I guess at that point they figure they have nothing to lose and are pissed about having wasted their time (again not my fault, since I told them from the start I wasn’t buying one).
It was funny though, hearing him grumble on his way out about the importance of keeping a clean house and how I should want to protect my investment.
Rob’s site is one of my favorite on the interwebs.
I’m more alarmed that your wife allowed a total stranger into your home.
I’ve ran into a few pushy salesmen in my day. I’m always polite with door-to-door sales people to start off, mainly because of a nostalgic mind that remembers when there used to be a far greater number of these people. It’s not a fun or rewarding job and I feel bad for the people who do it.
However, as a consumer they just rarely offer anything of value (I did buy a set of Britannica Encyclopedia’s in the 80s from a door to door salesman, it was expensive but was an upgrade to the World Book and Compton’s sets I already had.)
I’ve bought door to door meat before, also.
However anytime it’s a product I know I will truly not buy I just interrupt the salesman before they get started and tell them, “I’m sorry but I have no interest in that product and will not be buying it today, but thanks for stopping by.”
Over 15 years time I think there’s been 3-4 occasions where I’ve had to follow that up with, “I get that you’re trying to make a sale, but I’m not a customer for you. I’m going inside now, and if you do not leave my property I will consider you trespassing and notify the police.”
Once, ever, I told a particularly pushy magazine salesman who actually started to step into my house that if he didn’t leave my property immediately I was going to get a gun and consider him a violent intruder. (He left immediately without saying a word.)
That’s what surprised me. She usually gets all panicky when hears stories of home invasions in our city and absolutely freaked out one time when I let someone in to use the phone.
I guess these guys (actually a guy and a woman) were just really good at smooth talk.
Anyway from now on, she says she’s going to leave the little chain on the door when she answers it.
Really pushy salesmen can get people to spend a lot of money. But they have to be face to face to succeed. It is old fashioned marketing but for some customers it is very effective. They are of the same ilk as New Car salesmen. They can usually sell you a lot of extras if they get their claws stuck into you. They make money off the financing and warranties too.
From that same site. If they sold in an actual store, they’d have to pay people. The experience documented there is very similar to one my ex had working for them. They’re almost evil genuises in the sense that they do actually move some of their product and they don’t end up giving much money to their sales people.
My wife is warm-hearted, very conflict-averse and hates saying “no” to door-to-door salespeople, telemarketers, etc. I have no problem with politely but firmly saying “No, thank you, we’re not interested” as often as necessary.
As it happens, we inherited a Kirby from her great aunt. It was a very good vacuum and we got maybe another eight years or so of use out of it, but $2000 worth? No way.
You mean you don’t keep yours by the door? Forget telling 'em, just start loading.
I had a good time with some Kirby salesmen a while back. The junior guy did the demo (and the vacuum cleaner didn’t do that good a job) and the senior guy showed up to do the final sale. I had them go from $1500 to $1300 to $900 to about $500 by the time I finally ushered them out of the house. What was amusing was that I could see him go through every sales strategy he ever learned. First religious - not too good for me. Then quality. He got down to asking me to buy so his kids could eat.
But I expect the reason for them going door to door is to make you feel obligated to them for cleaning some of your rug (I had the guy do just a little piece precisely because of this) and the fact that it is harder for most people to kick someone out than to walk out of a store.
I really liked the Kirby my parents had, but they bought it from a vacuum repair shop, refurbished, for $50. Its got to be worth almost that much in scrap metal alone, nowadays, they weigh a ton!
I’ve known too many desperate people who thought that what they advertised were real job openings to ever even let the door-to-door saps start their presentation. Poor things.
Voyager hits on one of the main reasons: they want to demonstrate their product in your home rather than inside some storefront at a strip mall. They also want to compare their cleaner(s) to your current one. The usual demo starts with them cleaning an area with your current vacuum and then cleaning it with a Kirby to show how much dirt is being missed. We had a Kirby salesmen come to our home when I was 16 and their vacuum was able to collect almost twice as much as our current one. They (my parents) bought one and have been pleased with it as far as I know - I think they still use it to this day. It’s a very visual and effective sales tactic IMHO.
For most people, comparing a brand-new Kirby against your current vacuum cleaner is an apples-to-oranges thing, since many of us have older machines, perhaps with brushes that are hardly there any more. In a store, you’d be able to compare it against other new machines where it may not do so well. As I remember the Consumer Reports review of vacuum cleaners, they had a $300 Hoover model at the top with the Dyson models quite a bit below that and the Kirby well down the list.
Imagine the *overhead *they save by not having such a setup, though. That’s another reason they do door-to-door sales.